karavonpark

Hi everyone, my name is Kara.

My boyfriend and i are planning to go backpacking through Europe in mid July this year,

I would really appreciate any advice that could help me to decide on ideas we have. I'd love to hear any stories or see other peoples itineraries who have done a similar trip before.

I am 29 and have never been to Europe, so i'm really excited as i've been dreaming of this trip for some time. I do not have a dual passport so am limited in some countries with the Schengen agreement unfortunately. My boyfriend is part Dutch so he has no problems.

We are both planning on taking $18,000-$20,000 each. Do you think this is enough?

Do you think its worth me applying for a UK work Visa ($500), just incase? Because of my age, being that you can only be under 30 for 2 year work visa, i only have this opportunity. I dont believe il use it but people have suggested i should just get it incase i need to work whild in London etc, im hoping to just work at hostel etc, cash jobs.

I have just completed my studies so am free for a while to travel and explore. My boyfriend will take unpaid leave.

We are not really interested in partying hard anymore, we've been together almost 4 years and are really happy with some good wine/cheese/food/live music (music festivals)/Ocean(surfing,snorkelling,swimming),street art,culture).

I am interested in seeing the main cities for only a small amount of time 1-2 days, i'm more interested in the coast/countryside. Before i found out about the Schengen agreement, id hoped to spend a month in certain places, just arrive, if we loved then stay for a month or so. Really experience the lifestyle of the place/people. But unfortunately theres a time limit so we can't stay as long. Hopefully the places we adore 2 weeks will be enough time to really get the feel of the place. I'm predicting these will include Berlin, Avignon, Barcelona, Italy.

I feel like we could have so much fun just relaxing and exploring, stuff you can do for FREE the only thing we'd be really keen to do and spend money on would be music festivals, so any recommendations would be welcome thank you

We are hoping to pick up odd jobs working together eg fruit picking, hostel cleaning etc to pay for some of our accommodation.

We are happy to stay in hostels but would prefer our own room.

We have friends/family in London, Holland, Edinborough, Portugal. So will hopefully be able to crash on their floor whilst in those places even for a small amount of time, this will help alot with costs i hope.


We are very flexible with time/dates and are thinking of travelling for 6-8 months. 3 months in the Schengen countries, 2-3 month UK, 1-2 months non-Schengen countries eg Croatia, Turkey, Morocco any other suggestions?

If possible we'd love to stop off somewhere either Laos, Indo etc on the way home. Could even consider cutting time from Europe to spend time in Asia as much cheaper and different.

Idea is to fly to Amsterdam from Melbourne .There are two options i have found.

Option one: Melb to Amsterdam with China Eastern $1066 one way. Stop over in Shanghai 17 hours. Compared to other airlines this is pretty cheap.

Option two: Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur and then change to an Etihad flight to Amsterdam.
Return ticket. Return from London to Melb flying Etihad. roughly $1850 per person.

I'm not sure about a return ticket tho as we haven't got a set date of return or even decided which route we will be coming home.

We have had suggestions about hiring a car. What do you guys think?

If we go with Peugeot leasing we can get a diesel car rather than a petrol. For about 8 weeks this would be $1626 for a diesel for both of us. For a 2 month continuous rail pass through Europe it would be $1444 per person. I think value wise the car might still be the better option and we would have a lot more flexibility. ??

ROUGH ITINERARY

Fly Melbourne to Amsterdam

Spend 14 days in the Netherlands. See boyfriends family, explore and go down to Brussels for a long weekend.

Pick up the car in Amsterdam

Drive across to Germany and drive down through Germany . Chillout in Berlin. Total 14 days. (Schengen).


Drive into France and drive through Paris and northern spending about 7-10 days
( grape picking ) (Schengen).

Drive across into Spain 14 days (Schengen).

Portugal 7 days (Schengen).


Catch a ferry to Morocco 5 days or so?

Drive back through southern France for about 7 days visiting places like Avignon, Nice, Lyons, etc. (Schengen).


Drive through Italy for 14 days and drop the car off somewhere here? (Schengen).


Head over to Croatia - - possibly do some sailing from Split to Dubrovnik or vice versa 14 days or so?

Anyone sailed croatia? prices?

Spend 7-10 days in Greece - start off in Athens and then head over to the islands to do some island hopping (Schengen).


Roughly adds up to 90 Schengen Days, not inc non Schengen places on itinerary Morocco, Turkey, Croatia, Uk etc

From Greece head over to Turkey 5 days

Fly to the London

Ireland

Scotland

............................

sparkchaser

I'm pretty sure you are limited in ALL Schengen countries so you can only stay 90 days for every 180 days. Crossing a border into a non-Schengen country will NOT reset your clock.


If you want to stay longer than 90 days, apply for a visa that will let you stay longer.

sparkchaser

Gah. Forgot to address the car issue.

You can rent a car for less than $2888 for two months (for example kayak shows a Sixt rate of about 1450 USD) but then you have to factor in gas and insurance so make sure you do the math to see which is really more cost effective.


As far as your itinerary goes, I don't know you, what you like, or how you travel so I can't comment with regards to that. If your boyfriend thinks it looks good then it's probably fine. Some observations though:

Croatia: I had some friends rent a boat last year in Croatia and it was not expensive at all.

Morocco: I presume you are crossing at Tarifa into Tangier? Tangier is an interesting place to be sure and can be done in a day or two -- I don't think I could stand more than two days being constantly bombarded with people trying to sell me stuff but that's just me and your threshold may be higher. Just be smart and be alert and it will be fine.

The UK: EXPENSIVE. I always end up spending more than I budget. Always.

rialtogrl

It sounds like a great trip. You've got your number of Schengen days sorted too - brava.

I think it is enough money but I'd do a lot of self catering in the countryside so that you have enough to do some blow-out fun stuff like festivals. I assume that you are not really CARRYING the money but will have it in the bank and will take it out as needed. It is very very important to budget your money - I have a number in my mind to spend per week and I keep track of everything. If you spend too much one day, the next day don't spend any.

First - the car - I'd say yes, go ahead and lease one even though with gas and everything it might be almost the same as the train. The reason is, you can carry everything with you; say you stock up on groceries at a rental and need to move it to the next rental. I'm a little unclear if you are driving straight to Berlin from Amsterdam or want to make some stops - if you are going straight to Berlin, just take the train there and pick up the car after. Another place I wouldn't want a car is Paris.

You seem to be moving up and down a lot. Why not just move slowly south, saving a few of your schengen days for Greece; when you leave Spain for Morocco drop off the car and go. Then head to Greece for however many days and on up to Croatia. You could also go from France to Italy, take the ferry to Croatia (drop off the car and rent anew in Croatia), go to Greece after then Morocco. THEN Spain and Portugal after that. Just make sure that you don't go over the 90 days in 180 days in that timeframe.

Are you talking about one of the companies that does sailing tours in Croatia or renting your own boat?

5 days in Turkey is not enough. Add more time there if you can.

Make sure to get your passport stamped when you leave Schengen. And make sure they put the right date! Also keep all your ticket stubs, boarding passes showing you've left.